Friday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 7/25/2014

Orders for durable goods up in June

Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods rebounded in June after a May decline, helped by a recovery in demand in a key category that signals business investment plans. Last month, there were solid gains in demand for commercial aircraft and machinery. Analysts expect economic activity will strengthen in the second half of the year, helped by stronger factory production. More at the AP.

Investment Afghanistan: open for business?

As the battle over power rages in Afghanistan, a less publicized but just as crucial struggle is playing out over the economy. The past 13 years may have been violent and uncertain but they have also inflated a commercial bubble never before seen in a country laid low for decades.

When Florida lawmakers banned high-interest car title loans in 2000, then-Gov. Jeb Bush proclaimed that the new law would protect Floridians from lenders "who prey on the desperate." But in the past three years, the largest title lender in the country has swept into the state, offering a new version of the loans. More at the Tampa Bay Times.

No tolerance for workplace bullying, experts say

Bullying in the workplace happens at all levels and in many different workplaces, even to 6-foot, 200-lb. Miami Dolphins football players, experts said at a conference Thursday in Deerfield Beach. The Broward County Crime Commission gathered local and national experts to talk about adult and workplace bullying. More at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Deadly fungus spreads in Everglades, killing trees

A fungus carried by an invasive beetle from southeast Asia is felling trees across the Everglades and the damage may be leaving Florida's fragile wetlands open to even more of an incursion from exotic plants threatening to choke the unique Everglades and undermine billions of dollars' worth of restoration projects. More at the AP.

Developers buy land with plans to create Miami Riverwalk

New York real estate investors Chetrit Group and Miami developer Ari Pearl have bought 6.2 acres of land along the Miami River with plans to build a mixed-used development called Miami Riverwalk. More at the South Florida Business Journal.

Recreation Half the task of catching lobsters is finding them

Forget about getting anything out of Tom Matthews. The lobster biologist is as cagey as the crustaceans he studies. "The problem is that lobsters are notoriously hard to count," said Matthews, who works in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's field office in Marathon. "If you took all of the lobsters and put them in one room, they would all gather together in one corner."